The full story...

Qantas cuts maintenance jobs in latest blow to Geelong

SCOTT BEVAN: The Victorian city of Geelong is reeling from another economic blow today, with Qantas announcing it's closing its heavy maintenance facility at nearby Avalon next year with 300 jobs axed.

The airline says the closure is due to the gradual retirement of its 747 fleet, but the unions say Qantas just wants to send the work offshore.

For Geelong, the Qantas announcement joins a growing list of sorry departures, including Ford, Shell, Alcoa, Boral and Target.

LYELL STRAMBI: Over the next four years there are 22 months with no scheduled maintenance at Avalon for our 747 aircraft.

RACHAEL BROWN: A decade ago the airline had 35 747s; now it's 15 and sliding.

LYELL STRAMBI: And if we project forward in the next couple of years that will reduce to just 10. This process of fleet renewal makes Qantas more efficient and competitive as a business.

RACHAEL BROWN: Mr Strambi says over the past two months Qantas has looked at how to keep the base viable.

LYELL STRAMBI: We looked at Avalon taking work from other facilities around Australia, particularly from Brisbane; we looked at work from other airlines.

I acknowledge also the union put some proposals on the table for employees to take up to three months leave without pay - however, three months leave in a world we're facing up to 22 months over the next four years of no work is just be a drop in the ocean.

RACHAEL BROWN: He says the airline has to stay competitive for the sake of the 30,000 employees across Australia, so come March 14 next year, 53 direct employees and a further 246 contractors will be out of work.

Qantas says it will try to redeploy some workers, or where that's not possible, offer redundancies.

BEN DAVIS: Qantas should be ashamed of themselves. They've treated the workforce and their representatives with contempt. They've never taken this process seriously

RACHAEL BROWN: Ben Davis from the Australian Workers Union says the maintenance base at Brisbane has more than enough work to share with Victoria.

BEN DAVIS: The workload at Brisbane currently is full to overflowing, and the vast majority of the work, if it doesn't stay here, will go overseas.

STEVE PURVINAS: They're going to send it to Singapore, they're going to send it to Manila, they're going to send it to Hong Kong.

And we've got our own copies of Qantas's own quality assurance reports that recommend they do not send planes to some of these facilities again, because the aircraft do not come back in the same condition as they left our shores.

RACHAEL BROWN: He adds the workforce at Avalon can, and already has, worked on 737 aircraft and could do again. Instead Mr Purvinas says Qantas is killing the base, and its regional city.

STEVE PURVINAS: Geelong can't keep taking these hammer blows. Ford's already going; Avalon today is announcing it's going; Alcoa Point Henry is in no end of deep water; and Shell have already announced they are either going to sell or close in the next 18 months.

If you take those four employers out of Geelong, then you might as well turn the lights off in the manufacturing and heavy industry sector in Geelong.

RACHAEL BROWN: Around 500 hundred jobs are on the line at Alcoa's Point Henry aluminium smelter, and a similar number could go if Shell sells its refinery or downsizes. Boral cement works shed 100 jobs earlier this year, and Target cut jobs at its head office. Then of course there's Ford, which will cease manufacturing in 2016, costing a further 1,000 jobs.

All up, that's around three thousand jobs axed or threatened - all this year.

Shocked Qantas workers have started filtering out of the Avalon base after talks with their unions and counsellors.

QANTAS WORKER: Put it this way: I'll be moving out of Geelong cause I think Geelong's in trouble personally. Yeah, I think we're all going to struggle to find work after this, and I guess I'm a lucky one that's been in numerous industries. There's a lot of people in there that have only worked this industry, so I guess they'll hurt.

RACHAEL BROWN: Is there enough work?

QANTAS WORKER: In my opinion yeah, there is but you know, like we got to be careful 'cause we can't say much. We've been warned by our, by the company, and unfortunately a lot of us have got a lot of money invested. So for us to say too much, you know, it's really awkward.

But yeah, we believe, we believe there is the work there. It'll be off-shore, there's no doubting that.

QANTAS WORKER 2: Good to at least finally know I suppose. They said they might offer us jobs elsewhere they're going to try and transition us into other positions, but we'll just wait and see I suppose. We want to keep in this industry, we have to move.

SARAH HENDERSON: It's a very black day, I think, for Avalon airport and for our region.

RACHAEL BROWN: The new Federal Member for Corangamite, Sarah Henderson, says it's a trying time for the region that relies on manufacturing industries for 43 per cent of its GDP.

SARAH HENDERSON: Qantas, of course, has an ongoing investment at Avalon airport with Jetstar. There are another 90 jobs out there and I would just simply ask that Qantas and Jetstar reiterate its investment and its ongoing commitment to Avalon airport.

RACHAEL BROWN: The unions say for every job that's lost in maintenance or manufacturing in Geelong, it costs a further four or five jobs down the line.